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"Planning a wedding is way easier than I ever imagined," said no one ever. Because it never is: wedding prep is irritating and stressful and can be a total nightmare. Thankfully, you've got an ally working for you: your iPhone 7. And these days, from invites to dress inspiration, organising guest lists to sharing photos from the big event, you can do it all - the whole wedding planning shebang - via your smartphone. These are some of the apps that'll help you get down the aisle.

Getting engaged is awesome. It kind of feels like the happy-couple-montage-bit of any rom-com – although you don’t actually need to playfully toss marshmallows at your future spouse and beam at each other for hours unless you want to.

Until reality hits and wedding planning starts, that is. Weddings are HOW expensive? You have to invite all 35 of your beloved’s cousins, who happen to live in Pennsylvania (any space in your place for accommodation for some of them BTW?) And between running around location-spotting, dress-hunting and invitation-sorting, you seem to have less time with your SO than ever.

Wait, this whole wedding business isn’t sounding so good anymore, is it?

Turns out, you have a trusted ally who can help you through all of your wedding planning woes – and save you a bunch of cash in the process: your iPhone 7.

With a myriad of wedding-ready apps out there, everything from organising to invitations to getting the colour palette just-so is now a few taps away. With the iPhone 7’s quick performance (the chip is twice as powerful as iPhone 6‘s) and long-lasting battery life, as well as a 25% better, brighter and more colourful Retina HD display, what you see on screen is what you get in real life.

Need further convincing? Planning a wedding on your phone can help you stay within budget and save money overall (many of these apps are free; wedding planners are most definitely not), and it can also take some of the stress out of planning. There’s no need to run around from venue to venue like a headless chicken – your phone’s got everything you need. Even better? You won’t be leaving a massive paper trail in your wake, so the environment will thank you.

Digital planning is also ideal for helping you to keep in touch with guests, and can be the solution for couples looking to plan a long-distance destination wedding somewhere sunny and fabulous, but who can’t afford to jet to St. Barts every weekend (although when you do, you won’t have to pay roaming charges since we’re now offering Go Roam in 71 destinations).

Here are all of the essential wedding apps you need to know about to say ‘I do’ to planning your wedding on your phone…

The invites

When it comes to weddings, we all know more is more. So get on the invites. Paperless Post is our number one option for sending a digital invite as they have hundreds of beautiful designs and customisation opportunities – both paid and free of charge, and they also have paper versions available. Yes, people still like to receive mail in the actual post. Like those grandparents of yours who still can’t figure out how to access the Gmail account you set up for them three years ago.

Paperless Post’s internal data shows that on average, 82% of people open an online invitation. THAT’S BASICALLY EVERYONE. People be checking their emails, dawg.

We asked them if you can work out who bailed so you can blank them and they assured us that: “Hosts can track the status of their invites via the app, so they can see who has opened, who has responded, who has not.”

Now you just have to work out what kind of design you’re going to go for.

Luckily, our friends at PP told us:

“Most Paperless Post recipients open their invitations on their phone, so we’ve invested a huge amount in making that experience look and feel perfect – including making sure that all our designs look great on a smaller screen!”

They also had some advice on the invites that work best, if you’re overwhelmed by choice (borders? envelopes? envelope liners – yep, you can even get digital versions of those. Help!).

“A coloured background can really make the invite ‘pop’. An easy-to-read font is also key – and make sure the font size is big enough to read. With Paperless Post, hosts can personalise the whole invitation but shouldn’t forget vital details like the date and event time.” Thanks, guys.

The inspo

From getting the wedding palette just right to finding the wedding gown of your dreams, there are now zillions of apps you can scan on your morning commute or daily lunch break so you can decide the oh-so-crucial question of whether your wedding is going to be primarily centred around tones of cornflower blue or bold chartreuse. Trust us, when you’re getting married, you will get obsessive and even people who love you will call you a Bridezilla behind your back.

It’s a given that you’ll spend pretty much every day before your wedding surfing Pinterest for inspiration. With pictures of everything from hair and makeup to venue and decor ideas and dresses, it’s a must-have app to help you come up with (and steal/borrow?) ideas. It’s also essential scrolling for any DIY tutorials so you can get your jam jar flowers just right.

The Pantone Studio App (download from iOS here) is there to organise your colour scheme from start to finish, so everything works together seamlessly. Added bonus: it’s quite handy when organising your Mr.-and-Mrs. interiors palette, too.

Now the wedding dress is arguably the best/most stressful part of the whole wedding planning process. You can try on hundreds of dresses and feel that none of them are the one, or it can be love at first sight with the right dress (in a way that makes you worried you never felt those butterflies with your SO. Kidding!)

The Wedding LookBook by The Knot gives you a near-encyclopaedic reference guide to dresses, accessories, bridesmaid gowns and rings so you can help decide which style/fabric/colour/detailing is right for you. Just search by filter – off-the-shoulder, ballgown, strapless, etc.

The planning

Imagine your already hectic life, and then throw in an event that is at once the most significant and costly enterprise you’ve ever undertaken, not to mention the biggest admin nightmare, and welcome to the world of wedding planning. Even the most brilliantly organised person needs help.

Appy Couple is the app that lets you create your one-stop wedding website. Managing the whole process from Save the Dates to Thank Yous, you can organise RSVPs, collect guest photos, have a virtual guestbook, make travel and scheduling arrangements, set up registries and gift lists, organise your wedding day countdown and even include virtual toasts. It ticks every box, and is free to download for the couple and guests alike. An essential for destination weddings – like in one of our fab Go Roam destinations around the globe, where you won’t be charged any roaming fees, perhaps?

Think of LadyMarry as your own personal wedding planner in your pocket, offering a wedding checklist, vendor details, a day-of-wedding timeline and notes, so you can keep track of everything from your budget to your song list.

Though not strictly wedding apps, Evernote and Bear can turn you from a chaotic individual into an organisational whiz, letting you make to-do lists and take notes efficiently through every step of the wedding process.

The pics

Now, for the memories. Your wedding photos are going to dominate your social media feeds for at least six months (and then reappear at every possible anniversary opportunity – celebrating three months, baby!) and will be framed and displayed proudly all over your home. So, yeah, they’re pretty important. Also important? Getting guests involved in the photo taking/photo sharing process with an app like WedPics, which creates a personalised digital wedding album of sorts from pics that your family and friends have uploaded to the app and shared. You can easily select and print your faves. Those tables with disposable cameras? So 2008.

Now you’ve planned the big day, you just need to figure out where to stash your phone as you make your way down the aisle… It kind of deserves to be here celebrating with you, don’t you think?